Announcements

Gettin' Computer Help

As many of you know, if you have a computer question that needs answered, your best bet is our free message board at:

http://www.worldstart.com/ctmb.htm

Well, there's another good way. We have hundreds of tips right on our web site that can help tremendously. Just head to our homepage and do a search:

http://www.worldstart.com

The reason I mention this is because there are a lot of questions I see submitted to both the newsletter and the message board asking stuff that is already covered (with screen shots and all :-) on the web site.

So, next time you're looking for a solution to a problem, just do a search. You may be surprised what you find :-)

New Guy

We've had a number of e-mails asking where Amanda has been lately. Well, she's has gone on to bigger and better things. We do wish her well.

That said, I wanted to introduce you to our newest staff member, Jonathon. He's taking over for Amanda and will be in charge of the Cool Site section after today. You may have even seen his posts on the message board.

So, starting tomorrow, if you don't like the sites, he's the one to yell at :-)

If you have a cool site you want to send, here's his addy:

jonathon@worldstart.com

That's it. Enjoy the newsletter!

Computers 101

Q:
Do programs that run on Windows NT or 2000 usually also operate on XP?

A:
They have about the same chance as programs designed for win 95/98/ME (which is about 90%).

It's been our experience that most older programs will run on XP, regardless of what previous version of Windows they were originally designed for. The only ones that refuse to run are the ones you really, really need :-)

In fact, we've seen stuff that runs on win 9.x work just fine on XP, but not run at all on our Win 2000 computer. I know, that has nothing to do with the question, but it's a good FYI.

So, although this isn't the catch-all answer you were probably hoping for, I have to say "it just depends".

The good news is that as time goes on, more and more programs are going to be 100% XP compatible and this issue will be gone (of course, by then we'll probably be fighting with another new & improved version of Windows). I guess we'll have to just suffer along for now.

Oh, one last thing. If you can't get a program to run on XP, try this:

1. Right click its icon under the Programs menu, then select Properties from the resulting menu,

2. Now, click the Compatibility tab. You can choose what version of Windows you want XP to pretend to be.

For example, lets say you have a program that installs but refuses to run. If you set its compatibility for Win 98, you may find that it's now perfectly happy doing it's thing on XP (of course, it's blissfully ignorant of the fact it's been tricked).

This usually works about 50% of the time, so don't bet the preverbal farm on it.

Have a question for the newsletter? Submit it at the link below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitquestion.htm

Tip of the Day

Fixing Uninstall Errors

Web link - http://www.worldstart.com/tips/fixuninstall.htm

Have you ever gone to uninstall a program, only to get some kind of nasty error message? It was probably something to the effect that the uninstall part of the program was hopelessly messed up and good luck trying to remove it from your system.

Don't think you're ever going to have this problem? HA! And I bet you think Windows will never lock up on ya either.

You see, there are only two kinds of people when it comes to uninstall corruptions - those that have been faced with the problem and those who are gonna be.

OK, enough talk. What do you do if you run into this problem? Calling Microsoft certainly won't get you anywhere, nor will crying (well, its never worked for me).

The simplest solution is usually to reinstall the software you're trying to uninstall.

No that wasn't a typo and I haven't gone off the digital deep end.

When you reinstall the software, you usually reinstall the uninstall part of it too - with one that works.

Ahh, now you see grasshopper.

Have a tip for the newsletter? Submit it below:
http://www.worldstart.com/submitatip.htm

Cool Site of the Day

Digital Charity

Would you like to donate money to a good cause but just don't have the cash? Well, even if you do have the cash, you should still take a look at this one.

From the page below, you can go to dozens of different ad-sponsored charity sites.

How do they work?

Most have a "Click here to donate" type button. Just click the button and you're transported to a page with sponsors. Each time these sponsor ads are displayed, a donation is made to the charity.

So, go save some stuff! With all the readers on this newsletter, we could probably save the world! OK, maybe not, but it's worth a shot huh?

http://digitalcharity.com/

Do you have a cool site that you want to share? Send it to Jonathon! Here's the address:

jonathon@worldstart.com

Oh, and we're looking for non-commercial sites. We generally don't run sites that are strictly for shopping.